Issue 15 | June 2017

Welcome

This month we take a look at Demand Management, what it means and what measures are in place to ensure there is enough water available to provide our customers with clean, safe, secure and cost effective drinking water.

What is demand management?

Water demand management is defined as managing the demand for water to achieve a balance between economic, social equity and environmental outcomes. By understanding:

• how and where we use water,
• business drivers for demand management and identifying options applicable to the local situations,
• considering the cost and benefit of each option and
• developing a demand management program

We will be better placed to effectively manage water demands in the future.

View more on YouTube:

Where does our water come from?

Redland Water is connected to the South East Queensland Water Grid, which is made up of 12 dams owned and operated by Seqwater.

The Water Grid was built in response to the water supply crisis of the Millennium Drought from 2001 to 2007 when Queensland suffered its worst drought in recorded history.
The Water Grid includes dams and weirs, conventional water treatment plants and climate resilient sources of water, including the Gold Coast Desalination Plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme. A 600km bi-directional pipeline network enables Seqwater to transport drinking water to where it is needed.

While water can be moved around the region, drinking water is usually sourced and treated locally to minimise cost.

There are 16 ’off-grid’ communities not connected to the South East Queensland Water Grid, where the water is sourced and treated locally. The North Stradbroke Island townships of Dunwich, Point Lookout and Amity Point are three of these ‘off-grid’ communities. Bulk water for these townships is drawn from small, individual water treatment plants that treat bore water.

Sources of water for the Redlands include:

• Herring Lagoon, North Stradbroke Island – This water is treated at Seqwater’s main treatment plant in the centre of North Stradbroke Island and typically provides water to Southern Moreton Bay Islands residents. It is also used to supply the mainland reservoir complex at Heinemann Road, Mount Cotton.
• Ground water bores, North Stradbroke Island – This water is also treated at Seqwater’s treatment plant in the centre of North Stradbroke Island and also provides water to Southern Moreton Bay Islands residents and the mainland reservoir complex at Heinemann Road, Mount Cotton.
• Brisbane River – Water from the Brisbane River is treated at the Mt Crosby Water Treatment plant and transported to the Redlands via Seqwater’s Eastern Pipeline Interconnector into the Heinemann Road reservoirs.
• Leslie Harrison Dam – This water is treated at Capalaba water treatment plant and distributed across the northern part of the city.

Our infrastructure and demand

• Redland Water maintains more than 1281km of water main (about the same distance as driving from Brisbane to Canberra).
• We service a population of approximately 151,000 residents with 66,500 properties connected to the water network.
• Approximately 80 per cent of all water consumed in 2015/16 was for residential use, compared with around 74 per cent across South East Queensland.
• Demand for water has been slowly increasing since the Millennium Drought. This may be attributed to water restrictions ending in January 2013 and also new building developments in the Redlands.
• The average daily demand for water in the Redlands in 2015/16 was 36.44ML (equivalent to 15 Olympic swimming pools).
• Our maximum daily demand for water in the Redlands in 2015/16 was 53.30ML (equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools).
• RCC Water use per person in 2015/16 was 0.071ML.

How do we manage demand?

Demand is determined both by per person water use and by population.

Collaboratively, Seqwater and the five water service providers (the Councils of Redland City, Logan City and City of Gold Coast, and Unity Water and Queensland Urban Utilities) monitor demand and forecast for future use. Planning uses low, medium and high demand forecasts to prepare for different growth scenarios.

In collaboration with service providers and communities in South East Queensland, Seqwater has developed a program to identify ways to respond to changing influences and sets triggers for implementing options or reviewing and changing our response.
A key change to the drought response since the millennium drought is the introduction of a drought readiness phase to help prepare the region for the prospect of drought. The full plan is available from Seqwater.

Why save water? No Water No Life

Demand management takes pressure off the bulk drinking water supply and can potentially defer the need for a new water source.

From our perspective as a service provider, by reducing average demand, the cost of distributing water is reduced. Reducing peak demand can also lead to lower capital investment to meet the needs of growing communities.

From the community’s perspective lower operating costs and consuming less water day to day mean lower water bills as well as lower energy bills resulting from reduced hot water.

The environment also benefits from reducing extraction from rivers and aquifers leading to increased flows and improved river health.

Lower energy consumption also leads to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many interesting videos on this topic, including:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIaw5mCjHPI

Redland City Council is committed to ensuring our water distribution infrastructure is maintained and operated to a high standard and collaborating with Seqwater and other service providers in the development of the water security program and implementing any necessary measures to ensure we have continuous and safe drinking water.

The current water security plan dictates that:

• Drought readiness messaging will commence when the combined regional storage levels reach 70 per cent.
• Voluntary water conservation will commence at 60 per cent.
• Water restrictions at 50 per cent, and
• All assets including the Gold Coast desalination plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme will be operational by 40 per cent.

Dam levels are updated regularly 24 hours a day and are available from Seqwater along with a water consumption summary across the region. At the time of writing, water storage levels are at 76.3 per cent.

Water is a precious resource. As consumers, we can all help by managing our own demand by continuing to be water efficient at all times within our homes and businesses. Some quick easy tips for saving water and saving money are:

• Turn the tap off when brushing teeth – this can save nine litres a minute.
• Installing a 3-star water-efficient shower head will use no more than nine litres of water per minute.
• Take shorter showers, ideally less than four minutes.
• Fix leaking tap and toilets.
• Monitor your water meter between reads. Higher than normal use for your household may indicate a concealed leak.

More useful hints, tips and links to water conservation websites can be found on Council’s website.